Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader eBook

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British
brethren. We have warned them from time to time
of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable
jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement
here. We have appealed to their native justice
and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the
ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and
correspondence. They too have been deaf to the
voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces
our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest
of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States
of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing
to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude
of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority
of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish
and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of
Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that
they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British
Crown and that all political connection between them
and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be
totally dissolved: and that as Free and Independent
States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and
do all other Acts and Things which Independent States
may of right do. And for the support of this
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection
of Divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other
our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.[1]

THE PREAMBLE.

“We, the People of the United States, in order
to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain
and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America.”

ARTICLE I.

THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Section I.—­The Congress in General.

“All legislative powers herein granted, shall
be vested in a Congress of the United States, which
shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

Section II.—­The House of Representatives.

1. “The House of Representatives shall
be composed of members chosen every second year by
the people of the several States, and the electors
in each State shall have the qualifications requisite
for electors of the most numerous branch of the State
Legislature.”

2. “No person shall be a Representative,
who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five
years, and been seven years a citizen of the United
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant
of that State in which he shall be chosen.”